On the other hand, German and Dutch prisons when they do use solitary confinement it only amounts to a few hours or days (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). American human rights advocate states that the amount of times that prisoners spend in solitary can amount to torture, and in some cases American prisoners can spend up to years in solitary ( Human Rights Watch, 2012).
Another practice which is rarely used in German and Dutch prisons is solitary confinement. It has been found that these factors lead American prisoners to not function in society after being released they found that simple things like daily decision making is harder for them and making it hard for them to adjust to society (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). On the other hand, American prisons focus less on reform but rather on punishment, American prisoners have to follow strict rules such as daily schedule–when to wake up, what and when they eat, what they wear which is usually a uniform. As one of the German prison stated, “if you treat inmates like humans, they will act like humans” (Subramanian & Shames, 2013).
German and Dutch prisons believe by implementing these factors, it will contribute to the prisoner’s success in life after prison. Another example is that guards knock on the prisoners’ doors before entering, which gives the prisoners a sense of privacy, and their toilets are walled.
#PRISON ARCHITECT PRISONS NOT LOADING FREE#
German and Dutch prisons have “the sole aim of incarceration to enable prisoners to lead a life of social responsibility free of crime upon release.” They do this by giving the prisoners a fair amount of control over their daily lives such as what they wear and making their own meals.
On the other hand, American prisons use dehumanizing methods and focus more on punishment rather than rehabilitation. In German and Dutch prisons, they try to prepare the prisoners for life after jail. When looking further into the lives of prisoners in the three different countries, America stood out quite a lot. For example, possession of drugs won’t get you imprisoned, but they focus on bigger crimes such as drug trafficking, and if the individual who is involved with drug trafficking is addicted to drug, they can access detoxification or substitution therapy or needle exchange programs, which are lacking in American prisons and should be implemented (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). They can even get imprisoned for life for such crimes, whereas German and Dutch systems use a different approach. But why are more Americans being sent to prison, but crime rate has not lowered drastically? Is it because Americans have become more violent over time or are there perhaps other reasons? There are several reasons to this first being that Americans are being sentenced for “petty” crimes such as drug offenses or theft. This is why rehabilitation programs should be a key factor in reducing crime and furthermore reduce crimes committed by individuals that have been in prison and are returning to society. In other words, there is only about 20 percent reduction in crime since the early 1990’s. It was furthermore found that mass incarceration and increased investment in corrections did not bring better safety in return. The American prison population has increased by 700 percent in the last 40 years, but not only that it has cost the state corrections expenditures about $53.5 billion in 2012 (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). The first problem being the imprisonment of criminals. VERA: Institute of Justice’s report titled, “Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands Implications for the United States” found that there were several issues with the approaches to prison reform in America. When comparing prison reform to other countries around the world, America falls short and there are several reasons why.
Now back to the original question–are the rehabilitation programs they are receiving effective? The short answer is no. Rehabilitation In German and the Netherlands vs. Rehabilitation in prison plays a major role in the people who will be rejoining society after they finish their sentence, but are the rehabilitation programs effective? It should be effective for both the individual that is in prison, as well as the society however, this is not the case and result in bad consequences for both parties.
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